Last of the Veterans
by Feuersturm
Summary: The Battle of Earth ends on a catastrophic note - defeat. A final plan to save the galaxy is enacted. How will the crew of the Normandy handle their new tasks? Will they survive to live another day? Find out here! Note: This follows Mass Effect up until the Crucible connection - the story diverges from there to a Reaper victory. No more spoilers - read the story instead!
1. Chapter 1 - Seeds in the Wind

**Chapter 1: Seeds in the Wind**

Shepard looked over the idyllic landscape around him. Snow fell peacefully towards the ground, occasionally disrupted by a weak gust of wind. Behind him lay large and imposing mountains, displaying their dominance over the surrounding hills.

Peace. Peace was something once many enjoyed. Well, to a degree anyway. The quarians and the geth only recently came to terms, since there was much more at stake than a homeworld now. The reapers put that into perspective. What is one world, when the entire galaxy is at stake?

Shepard sighed. The loss of Earth was a devastating blow to the combined forces of the galaxy. Devastating might not even be the word for it – catastrophic might be more apt. All he had to do was look around to see its effect on moral. Suicide rates were increasing at an alarming rate – so much so that extraordinary measures had to be taken to try to mitigate it. Among his own crew, defeatism had begun to sink in.

_'If it was not for their friendship and duty to each other, I wonder if we'd even still be together as a crew'_, Shepard mused. '_Now that I think of it, we're all the only family anyone has left.'_

With so much of the population centers of the galaxy under Reaper 'occupation', not many had surviving family members. The Quarian fleet was outright decimated in the Battle of Earth, and the turian and asari homeworlds had fallen. Tuchanka had yet to fall, but the krogan were about to scorch the planet with nuclear weapons.

_'A good thing too, the last thing we need is to be fighting reaperized krogan as well.'_

It was all for naught. Everyone knew that the war was lost – it was all now about preservation. Under Liara's guidance and the prothean VI, small stasis bunkers were being built all over the galaxy, usually on backwater garden worlds in systems that had yet to be attacked. The plan was to avoid the mistake the protheans had made, and place million-man bunkers on high-profile planets. These were smaller, often less than a thousand a piece.

_'Like seeds in the wind.' _Liara had put it, _'We scatter the survivors as far apart as we can. The more there are, the less dependent we are on a single seed to carry forth our knowledge.'_

Which led them to here. This was one of the last shelters left. Deep in the mountains lay a catacomb network that could house 2,000 people in stasis for, well, nobody knew how long. It was powered by an experimental hybrid of asari and prothean power generators. Hard to detect, but entirely untested. Desperate times, desperate measures.

A convoy of the remaining scientists and high-ranking personnel were to arrive in this bunker. Many were asari whom worked in secret on prothean technology. A small group of the best fighters from the turian hierarchy were also here – many against their wishes. Very few human scientists were actually going to be saved – a heavy price for the tactical nightmare that was Earth.

Many didn't trust the humans with tactical decisions after the battle. Humanity's blind rush forward had finally cost them. The Crucible had been a reaper trap. After it docked with the Citadel, it had crippled much of the galactic fleet. Only an engineering fault prevented it from decimating the rest. While it was not all humanity's fault, they'd got most of the galaxy to funnel all its resources into a weapon that brought their own downfall. Not only that, but after Cerberus collapsed, many of its former members joined the Alliance. _'I suppose I cannot really blame them for distrusting us' _Shepard thought sorrowfully,_ 'I'm surprised they even let us tag along at all anymore.'_

Shepard's communication room buzzed alive, breaking his thought. "Commander Shepard. This is The Ark. We've just made it through the relay and reaper forces are in pursuit. Brace for incoming enemy forces"

_'Well, so much for a peaceful day.'_

* * *

A giant red beam pierced through the clouds, decimating sections of the forward defence line only a kilometre away. The welcoming signal of yet another reaper joining the attack. It's terrifying horn echoing through the crisp and cool air.

"…there just isn't enough time…."

"What was that Shepard? It's kind of hard to hear you over all the….."

Grunt was cut off. As if on cue, a volley of shots set the ground alight, kicking up dirt and taking out chunks of the concrete barricade. A squad of Marauders were taking up positions on their flank.

"There is not enough time! How are we going to get them into the shelter unnoticed?"

The task of getting the Ark members into the catacombs was originally supposed to be simple, but that was no longer the case. By now the reapers had indoctrinated spies deep within the Alliance command structure, so it was only a matter of time before they showed up. How they found out about the movement of such key personnel was a topic of discussion that no longer mattered. What mattered was getting them into the catacombs, and covering the entrance behind them. What they needed was a diversion.

"Grunt, do you think you could bring your squad around and support that Atlas? We need to force them off that ridge – the convoy with the scientists will be arriving any minute now"

"Always up for a good fight, but do I have to work with Cerberus agents?"

"Ex-Cerberus, Grunt. We're looking to make you a bigger target, you've still got quite a bit to go before you can strut around like Wrex"_,_ Shepard retorted.

No, the battle we not going very smoothly at all. The reapers had massive amounts of units and their disposal. The husks from Earth, coupled with the Marauders from Palaven, were causing enough trouble as it was. And they had a near-endless supply of them.

"Liara, EDI – I need you to direct them to the East entrance – the North one has been sealed. Once they make it in, you'll need to stay there. Nobody knows these systems better than the two of you. Make sure they are set up correctly, then wait for the rest of us. If we are not in within the hour, seal the complex and begin stasis."

"You make sure you make it this time. I doubt very much I'll be able to bargain for your corpse again!" – Liara quipped in response, trying to make light of the situation.

"Why, with all that Cerberus tech in me, you know, I don't even know if it's possible to kill me anymore…" – Shepard grunted as a swift elbow connected with his ribs.

"He promises, _right_ Shepard?" – Tali cut in, withdrawing the elbow to a safe distance once more. "Besides, this bosh'tet still owes me a house on Rannoch"

"And we all promised we'd meet up and drink on a beach somewhere nice, and warm"_ –_ Garrus pitched in with a resigned tone.

Sentimental conversation was for another time. For now, they had more important things to worry about.

* * *

"Incoming occuli!" yelled a private, just as the missile batteries started to fire. Shepard watched the sky as missiles contacted with the reaper strike craft.

Back on Earth, they were able to combat the Reaper spacecraft in air-to-air combat. They had long since lost that luxury. The reapers enjoyed total air superiority, and used it to their fullest advantage. This forced The Ark spacecraft to land a fair distance away and make the trek on foot.

Garrus and Tali watched in horror as several craft made it through the air defences, and moved off to the direction the land convoy was coming from. Several explosions were heard, confirming they'd found what they were looking for. Up on the ridge, the Atlas covering the flank was being decimated.

The comm. unit on his omnitool crackled, and Grunt's strained voice soon reported in.

"…Shep…d….the flan…..alling, several scions…bansh…..it's been a good fight…..Shepard…"

The situation was turning desperate. The turians holding the forward flank were now being routed, the flank was dissolving, and the convoy was likely destroyed. They had to withdraw before they lost everything.

"This is Commander Shepard. All units are to retreat to the evacuation points and meet up with the remainder of the Shield fleet. This position is lost. We'll have to try again at the next depot."

"Okay squad, we need to double time it back to the shelter. Liara and EDI are waiting for us there. We'll intercept the rest of the convoy and escort them in."

Garrus, who's mind was as quick as his draw, connected the dots "So…we are _not_ withdrawing off-world?".

"No Garrus. Imagine all these panicking soldiers retreating to the catacombs. They'd not only overload the system, but bring the reapers right into the complex. We cannot afford that, not now."

"Cold and calculated Shepard. Has it really come down to this?" Garrus said solemnly, recalling a conversation they had back on the Normandy. Without answering, Shepard turned and his crew followed him up the slope.

* * *

"My sensors detect another AI presence in the vicinity, Dr. T'Soni." For an AI, EDI's voice seemed rather on edge.

"That must be Tali's suit. She mentioned to be that the geth were integrating with their suits" Liara said, pausing slightly, hoping she was right.

EDI turned to reply, but before she could, the remnants of the convoy rumbled over the hill at break-neck speed towards the complex. In tow was a small squad of ex-Cerberus soldiers, among them her former shipmates.

"Nice of you to make it, Shepard. I was beginning to think you'd break your promise."

"Not now Liara! We've got Reaper foot soldiers inbound!"

A missile struck above the concrete entrance, sending debris raining down on the defenders. A phantom was crushed be debris, sending her sword rattling across the ground.

The automated compelx VI broadcast a message to the troops: _"Warning: East entrance controls damaged. East entrance door mechanisms damaged…."_

The civilians began unloading from the convoy and began rushing into the complex. Garrus scowled at a few of them.

"What's the matter Garrus?" Shepard questioned, raising his brow.

"These are not civilians, well not all of them anyway. Some of these turians are from fleet command. YOU COWARDS" shouted Garrus.

"You know as well as I do that many of them are here against their wishes. Besides, most of us are staying behind as well."

"Are you suggesting that I hide in this bunker while the galaxy burns?" Garrus said, forcefully.

"It's not a suggestion. We need people who have seen the conflict, to save the Galaxy – even if it is not in our own time."

Liara, who'd be listening in, voiced her opposition in a very cold and dark tone. "That is the most selfish thing I've ever heard you suggest Shepard. You're putting our lives above everyone else whom have survived this far. There are plenty of more important people! I'll have no part in this!"

_"Reaper forces have entered the complex. Automatic sterilization protocols will engage in 10 minutes."_ the automated VI broadcast once more.

"There is no time to argue, get to the damn stasis pods!" – Shepard shouted as more Marauders began pouring into the complex.

* * *

Bullets tore all around Shepard, bringing down his barriers and heavily damaging his suit. Tali was also pinned down some 15 meters behind him.

Damage in the pod room was escalating. They'd managed to seal the main doors, but also locked in an entire squad of Reapers – with a banshee decimating swaths of pods at a time.

"Sterilization protocol to begin in 2 minutes"

Garrus and Liara were already in stasis pods. EDI would be turned on every so often to check on the status of the pods, to prevent the problem the protheans had, which had unknowingly killed many important personnel. Hopefully using an AI instead of a VI would make a difference. AI could think logically, where a the VI would do as it was programmed – and only that.

"Tali, get into that pod!" Shepard yelled over the firefight.

"I'm not leaving you to fight them on your own!"

"I'll be right behind you. Hop in there!"

Tali fired off another round from her Geth Plasma Shotgun, swung herself over into the stasis pod, and closed it over her.

After a minute, the sound of the battle seemed to quieten – she could not tell if it was because of the pod, or…

_'No, no. Shepard would fight and then he'd get into the pod beside hers. Her heart began to race. What if he didn't make it? What…if….'_

Then her heart rate began to slow. '_Is this the start of stasis?'_

Tali'Zorah had no idea what stasis was like – nor did many. Liara had a rough idea from some of the people who tested the trial ones, but Tali hadn't been listing at the time. Now she regretted it. '_Damn it.'_

_'What…am…I….supposed to do? Shepard had just gone over this earlier. What was it...Oh yes.'_

"Alcatraz, disable suit…remain inactive until….I….command otherwise…."

Alcatraz had been Shepard's pet name for her suit's Geth program. It just stuck. That seemed so long ago. '_Has he made it to the pod yet?'_

She was about to shut down the omnitool, when it gave one last broadcast.

"Goodbye, Tali."

Those were the last words she heard before her world went dark.


	2. Chapter 2 - Awake

**Chapter 2: Awake**

Tali'Zorah blinked. A dim blue light was lighting up the corners of her mask.

'_My face is cold. I shouldn't be able to feel anything yet my face is cold.'_

In fact, that was not the only thing that felt cold – her entire body felt numb. She moved her head to the side slightly, but even that was difficult. Feeling started to come back slowly limb by limb, as if the her entire body was rebooting.

First, she nudged her arms around, and then the warming sensation continued to spread throughout her body.

'_Wait a minute…'_ The quarian began to panic. '_Oh no. The stasis failed! I shouldn't be able to feel anything! Think girl, think!'_

'_The reapers – they must have damaged my pod before Shepard killed them!'_

A dull impact broke her out of thought. Suddenly, friction gave way to gravity and the stasis pod began to slide. The sound of grinding rocks and metal echoed in the small cavity she occupied, causing her to wince in pain.

'_There must be some reapers alive still! That means the sterilization protocols failed…that means Shepard must be….'_

The pod came to an abrupt stop, smacking into a solid surface. Her combat instincts began to kick in. She turned on her suit's systems and began to formulate a plan.

'_I need to get out of here. What was the layout of the compound again? There was a corridor nearby. I'll go for that.'_ She reached for her shotgun and spoke to Alcatraz.

"Alcatraz, I need you to unlock this pod on my command. Can you do that?"

"Yes, creator Zorah. It should be possible. I detect many lifeforms within close proximity of this pod. I suggest caution."

'_Okay. You can do this. Open, shoot, run, take cover. Open, shoot, run, take cover….'_

'_Three. Two One'_ "Now!"

Tali jumped out of the pod, letting loose two volleys from her plasma shotgun. In her peripherals, she saw two of the Reapers go down. The corridor was just 10 meters away – closer than she anticipated.

She dove into the corridor, hoping to escape the enemy's field of view. Everything hurt. Arms, legs, back. '_Must be the side effects of stasis. Damn it. I don't remember Liara mentioning this.'_

She rested her arm on the wall, catching her breath. Her head was throbbing, as if someone was trying to pry it open with a crowbar. '_Reminds me of how I felt the morning after Shepard's party…'_

Tali paused. Footsteps. They were getting louder. Desperately, she looked around the corridor. Debris littered the sides, piling as high as a meter above the ground. At the end, a ladder was poking out of the debris. A ladder that led upwards. A ladder that offered escape.

She ran down the hall, if you could call it that. It was more of an awkwardly drunken stumble. Tali reached the end, and put the shotgun on her back. Over her shoulder, she could see a pair - possibly more - of enemy troops rounding the corridor. '_Climb girl, climb!'_

Tears began to trickle down her cheek as her body lit aflame. Every muscle was screaming in agony. She reached the top of the ladder and tried to turn the wheel. It appeared to be stuck, as if unused for some time. She braced herself on the edge of the vertical tunnel, took off her shotgun, and started hammering at the wheel with the butt. It gave way slightly, and she turned it several times. Below her, the indistinguishable speak of Reapers was heard.

'_That was close'_, Tali thought, as the crawled out of the hatch.

Rain droplets splashed across her visor as she steadied herself on the rocky mountain surface. She looked around, only to herself surrounded by a strange type of reaper she'd never seen before. In the distance, down the slope of the mountain, lay the smoking ruins of battle.

Tali looked again. The smoke did not arise from battle. They arose from factories. Around those factories, a small town. She blinked away the tears, fearing they were causing her vision to become impaired.

'_No, no, no. You silly bosh'tet. You're dreaming. You must be dreaming. Am I dead?'_

The figures around her did not look like reapers. They looked more like lizards. Lizards walking on two legs wearing body armour.

'_You must be dead. This is not possible. Where are the reapers? Garrus? Liara? No, this must be the afterlife. Some stasis-induced dream. Or hell….'_

One of the lizards wearing combat armour cautiously approached her. Tali dropped to her knees, the rain storm intensifying. '_Where is…Shepard?'_

An agonizing scream pierced through the air. A scream filled with sorrow, anger, and pain. A scream let loose by Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, the last living quarian.

* * *

"Hey, Sel, do we need the military in on this? Their 'scientists' always muck things up you know…"

As a civilian archaeologist and scientist, Sel Fesov was well aware the ramifications of having the military in such a old ruin. They did not care for preservation. In fact, she was certain they'd rather do away with cataloguing the ruins all together and pick the place clean.

"You know as well as I do that it is not my choice to make. They always bud in these Terrian ruins, ever since they discovered that alien weapons cache on Adanac IV." She replied, glaring at the military 'scientist' a few meters away.

This ruin was one of the best ruins she'd seen. It was also in one of the worst conditions imaginable. The signs of an intense struggle were found all over the interior. Supporting columns were cracked, and in some places missing all together. The front of the ruin had collapsed at some point in its history. The entire south and east sections was underwater, and efforts to drain them had seen little headway. The cavities were littered with open pods – some crushed, some just simply open – their contents having rotted away long ago. A figure entered the dimly-lit ruins.

"I wonder if these people turned on themselves, you know, like maybe some of them went insane?" Commander Ara Alaya casually commented as she strolled in.

"Commander Alaya. I did not realize you were coming here. I would have hid everything valuable from your group's thieving hands" Sel spat. Oddly enough, she'd thought something similar when she first saw the ruins – there was no wreckage to be found outside the cave structure.

"Now, now, Miss. Fesov – there is no need to be rude. Anything that can further the cause of the Empire is more valuable to our species as a military asset rather than a museum piece, don't you think?"

Commander Alaya walked past the two scientists, whom had not retorted in kind. '_Wise of them'_, Ara thought. '_It is unwise to criticize the Empire's strategies when it comes to our expansion'._

Sel and her junior archaeologist, Sirk, went back to cataloguing the various pieces of destroyed technology in the central cavity. They'd found mechanical beasts, burned by what appeared to be some form of plasma rounds. These machines were odd devices – possibly once having walked on two legs like they did, but lacked a tail for balance. The face on the machines was similar to theirs, minus the two crests that marked their species. It also missed a snout. '_Peculiar'_ she thought. Another mechanical beast had a terrifying facial complexion, with metal tendrils extending off the back of the head. '_If they made these machines in their image, then they would have been an interesting species to meet…'_

She looked up to notice the commander climbing up some of the debris. She was attempting to access one of the higher levels of the complex – a level that was at best unstable. While an 'accident' would please her greatly, the added scrutiny that would follow would just make her life more difficult.

"Commander! That area of the ruin is prone to collapse! Please step away from the edge, for your own safety…"

"Hold on, there is something here. Can't you notice the…."

The ground beneath her feet gave way. The Commander slid down the embankment, having knocked large debris loose on her tumble. An unopened pod narrowly missed crushing her limbs as it made contact with the opposing wall.

The Commander staggered backwards, attempting to avoid any more possible debris. She appeared somewhat dazed – a state very few ever saw her in.

"Are you _trying _to get us killed! You're going to bring the entire damned structure down on our heads!" Sel practically screamed at the Commander.

"Watch your tone, or I'll…." Ara trailed off, as she noticed the pod. Sel, Sirk, and the escorting guards stared at the pod. There were lights on it. The pod was still active.

"By the maker – this pod is still online! How is that possible? Didn't you say this structure is at least 25,000 years old?" Commander Alaya quizzed – having immediately forgot her anger towards the scientist.

"Yes…..and could possibly be much older. This shouldn't be possible.". Sel approached the pod.

"Sel, stand back. Guards, move in front of us."

"Commander, is that…" Sel began to protest.

"We don't know if whatever is in there is friendly or foe. You're a damn fine scientist and I'd hate to lose you to some accident due to carelessness on my behalf. Command would kill me!"

Sel kept quiet. It was rare to receive a compliment from the Commander. Given their rocky relationship, she was not about to push her luck.

The pod hissed, and the two guards trained their gun cautiously on the pod. Suddenly, a figure appeared and several light-blue spheres flew from the pod's direction and made contact with the guards. The guards screamed, and dropped to the ground, holes melting through their combat vests.

The Commander and the three scientists dove out of the way. The military scientist collapsed to the ground, a hole having melted through his snout. The Commander hissed.

"This is why the military should be in here first! Damn that thing!". The Commander drew her pistol, and took off in pursuit. The two remaining scientists trailed – this was potentially the biggest find either of them would come across. Only if the military didn't kill it first.


	3. Chapter 3 - Through Thunder and Rain

**Chapter 3: Through Thunder and Rain**

Water was pouring through the open hatch, creating a slick surface over the ladder. Sel could hear the low rumble of thunder echo down the narrow tube. Her tail painfully smacked the sides of the structure – obviously the race that designed this did not have to worry about rear limbs. The Commander was only a few second ahead of her – about half way up the decrepit ladder – when a disheartening and slightly distorted scream let loose from above.

'_Oh no! The military! They shot the alien!'_ Sel thought frantically, looking up just in time to see the Commander's tail clear the hatch.

"Your damn bastards had better not have killed it!" she yelled upwards.

Her arms lurched over the edge, pulling the rest of her body over the wet and slippery rocks. The alien creature was on its knees, shotgun on the ground half a meter away. The creature had its head down, with its shoulders slouched forward. The Commander stood nearby, pistol drawn and aiming at the back of the creature's head.

She got a good look at the creature for the first time. A veil of fabric covered various places on the suit – possibly an environmental suit or combat – maybe both. A heavily tinted visor obstructed any view of the face. An outline of mammary glands on the chest of the suit suggested that it was warm blooded, and very likely female. Three fingers and three toes were visible – an odd sight for an advanced or evolved species. Her legs also appeared to be bowed – the lower joints appeared to bend very different that her own species.

She then noticed something else - the suit had seen much use. The veil was in poor condition –with much tearing – while the colors were faded and bleak. The visor had many scratches and scuffs, and the metal plating on the suit was dinged, and displayed many scorch marks.

The front of the mask had a small blinking light. Every time the creature – no, alien – spoke, it lit up. The language she was speaking was very different – many words seemed abbreviated or joined together harshly.

The Commander broke her train of thought. "Guards – I need you to take this….thing….under watch and bring it back to the base. The worsening conditions of this storm is no place for something of such high value."

None of the guards moved. They seemed very timid, possibly even afraid. The alien had stopped making noise. She was not sure, but there looked to be eyes on the mask. And these glowing eyes did not appear to be friendly. Sel turned to the Commander.

"Perhaps a more…gentle…approach might be needed?"

The Commander nodded. Behind her, Sirk began to protest the danger, but quieted after a glare from Sel.

Sel approached cautiously, her tail twitching nervously. She motioned for the alien to pick up her weapon – perhaps this would put her more at ease.

The alien did just that. Maybe she should nickname the alien – something similar to hers. '_Siluria._ _Yes, that will do the job quite well.'_

Siluria picked up the weapon, and put it on her back slowly, as if not to cause alarm. '_That is good, I'd rather interview her alive instead of dissecting a corpse.' _Sel noted in her head.

They began to walk down the mountain, entering a heavily forested area as they dropped below the treeline. The soft patter of rain that made its way through the canopy was soothing – and causing a light mist to develop along the wet and muddy surface. The forest was mostly silent – as if all attention fell to Siluria. Watching her. Watching a species that had not been seen in over 25,000 years.

She had so many questions for her, if only they could communicate. She was obviously military – civilians like Sirk and herself did not find themselves wearing battle-worn combat armour like she did. And those moves! Her agility after the pod opened was amazing. She'd never even seen any of the Commander's troops match that agility. Heck, Siluria had put down 2 guards and a scientist before they even knew what was happening.

The alien seemed to be struggling through the mud, but again made no sound. All she did was look around her. While the alien mainly kept her head down, Siluria would occasionally glance at the tree tops, or deep into the forest. '_Had she never seen a forest before? Or is she looking for a way out?'_

Given her agility, it was obvious she had seen combat – and likely lots of it. '_What was she fighting? Who had she fought? Civil war, or a war of conquest? Did she become trapped in a shelter her race designed, or did she become trapped in a shelter her race was conquering?'_ So many thoughts raced through Sel's mind.

'_And what of that shotgun?'_ It was unlike anything they'd ever seen before. As she pondered what answers Siluria might provide, they continued down the path towards the base.

* * *

Tali'Zorah vas Normandy was defeated. There were not enough words to describe what she was feeling right now. Above all others, however, she felt empty and alone. Everyone she knew, everything she cared – and fought for – was gone. The reapers – the very thing she'd spent most of her life fighting against, one way or the other – gone, likely back in dark space.

Rannoch – the homeworld she'd fought so hard to reclaim – probably destroyed. The Normandy, Liara, Garrus – all gone. Shepard – the person she was sure she'd spend the rest of her life with – dead. He'd broke her promise to her, and now she'd never see him again.

The lizard soldiers around her remained silent, but kept a watchful gaze. Tali did not know where they were headed. '_Hopefully somewhere dry and warm_. _A prison cell would be better than this'_

The forest canopy – while immense and awe-inspiring, did little to keep the rain out. The torrents of water were turning the ground into a quagmire of tree branches, dirt, and rock. The water buildup on her helmet would often stream across her visor, breaking off in different patterns each time. Random, like fate. Fate that chose her to come out of stasis, and one of the others.

Every muscle continued to scream. They'd been hiking for at least an hour, and the stormy weather continued to worsen. The effects of stasis were harsh on her. The only other person she'd known to have gone through stasis was Javik, though he'd not shown any noticeable signs of pain afterwards. Another sharp jolt of pain ran up her leg as she slipped on another rock. '_I wish they'd have just let me die in stasis.'_ she thought, glumly.

Ahead, a small fortification began to appear. At first, she could only make out the low walls, slick and shiny with fresh rain – and comprised of camo nets and logs. A pair of guards were posted to the front on the complex. As they walked through the gates, the guards broke their rigid composure and stared at her as she passed. Tali looked up at the guard towers, whose occupants were staring back at her, under their large military ponchos. It brought back familiar feelings – feelings of her days on the pilgrimage.

Back on the pilgrimage, many customs officials and tourists would stare at her. These stares were different – they were not stares of disgust or anger, but stares of awe. Stares of puzzlement, of wonder.

They'd never seen a quarian before, or anything like one. She was an outsider again. Would these people heed her advice, or lock her up like an animal on display? Would she fall into the wrong crowd, like Fist?

"Alcatraz, do you know what these native species evolved from?" Tali asked, rather silently.

"No, xreator Zorah. They do not appear to be similar to any species previously known to the us. However, my archives are limited as I can no longer reach consensus with the others." Alcatraz responded, with what appeared to be sorrow. She was not the only one that was last of her kind.

The Commander began to speak to some other personnel on the base. Tali could only hope for the best. There was not much else she could do in her current predicament, but wait.

* * *

"Hey, you – stop starring." the Commander barked at the soldier. "Go clear out the barracks, and post two guards outside of it. The troops can spend a night outside. We've got to keep a watchful eye about. Nobody is to leave this area – you understand?"

The soldier darted off quickly, almost losing traction on the mud beneath his feet. She looked up towards the sky. The rain was tapering off, but vicious looking clouds remained, threatening another downpour. '_It might be best if we make for the ship in the morning'_ she thought to herself. '_If we leave early enough, we might just have enough cover to make it to the ship undetected'_

"Sel, I'm going to let you spend the night keeping our…guest…company. It doesn't seem nearly as threatened by you as it does by me. I expect you to fill out a full report by morning for me to go over. You'll have several guards outside the barracks, so don't hesitate to call one should the need arise."

"Yes Commander." Sel responded, rather enthusiastically.

Though she'd never admit it to Sel, she'd grown fond of the scientist. She was courageous, ambitious, and smart. Just the kind of thing she needed on her crew. The fact that her last scientist just got a hole melted through his snout made the option quite clear. She'd offer her a recruitment to her crew in the morning.

For now, Ara had to plan a way to get the alien off-world. While Sel only had to worry about ruins and archeology, she had to concern herself with much more important things – including the illegality of their current actions.

Technically, they were not even permitted to be here – military forces were not allowed on this world – or this system – after the conclusion of the First Contact War some thirty-five years ago. This was raloi space, and the raloi did not take to treaty violations lightly.

Ara walked up to her tent, and pulled the flap off to the side. The sudden movement of fabric sent water splashing down on her already-drenched uniform. She entered the tent, and began to unbutton her shirt – placing it over the heating unit. With a uncomfortable sigh, the Commander lay down on her cot and looked up at the patterns on her tent – created by the randomness of nature on the artificial fabric.

In thirty-five years, her race had advanced and spread out faster than they ever had in the past. It was shortly after the First Contact War that they'd discovered a galaxy full of alien life – and the Citadel.

The size of the Citadel was almost beyond imagination. A massive floating space station that was fifty kilometers long, built by a race that neither they knew, nor the Council knew. '_Could this alien have known who built it? Perhaps she was part of the race that designed it!'_ she though, excitedly.

While to her crew she appeared strict and emotionless, internally ideas such as that excited her. The Citadel was an immense construction of the most sophisticated technology she'd ever set eyes upon. Originally, the Empire and the Council had thought that the Keepers – nicknamed for their task of keeping the place running – had created the Citadel. This idea was quickly quashed, as they acted more like robotic cleaning drones than an advanced space-faring race.

Her thoughts went back to the First Contact War. '_How were we supposed to know about Council Law, when we were not even made aware of it ourselves? Does that still make it a punishable crime?'_

They'd be on the receiving end of some pretty tough sanctions. Their fleet size was significantly limited by 'Council Treaties', and they were one of the few races on the Citadel without proper representation. Ara frowned, and turned on her pillow. They'd correct that soon enough, and it was possible this alien may prove to be the key to doing just that.


	4. Chapter 4 - A Bridge to the Past

**Chapter 4: A Bridge to the Past**

The barracks unit was quite cramped, but given the alternative she was in no position to complain. The cots were packed in quite close, perpendicular to the side walls, with a two meter gap between the rows. The floor of the tent was raised on a hastily constructed surface, likely a combination of local timbers and dirt, topped by a compactable, sturdy, but light-weight flooring. The lighting gave off a blue tint, giving off a cold vibe in an already chilly environment.

Sel sat on the rough barracks cot, looking at the figure who sat opposite of her. She felt intimidated, but not threatened. The alien before her easily had half a meter on her, a fact stood out quite glaringly now that it was just the two of them. Siluria was sitting, cross legged, fidgeting with her three fingers.

Sel broke the silence. "Hello."

Siluria sat there, still fidgeting. She knew the alien couldn't understand her, but it made her feel better to talk anyway.

"I know you probably don't understand me. However, in the interest of the Empire I must at least try."

_'What is the best way to communicate with her?'_ Sel thought. _'Pictures? Yes! Pictures are one of the most basic forms of communication!'_

Sel motioned for the alien to stay put, and stepped outside of the tent to find something to draw on.

* * *

Sel returned with one of the squad's military tablets. It composed of a thin, light-weight, and glassy material – but significantly more durable. Among its various uses, the tablet was able to display a rudimentary map of the galaxy, in which she could zoom in on various parts of the known galaxy. She hope that Siluria would be able to tell her where she was from. She pulled out a piece of paper, and quickly sketched a horrendous looking house, and then passed the tablet over to the alien.

Siluria seemed hesitant, dropping her head down slightly. She then regained composure, and began zooming through various parts of the map. After a minute or so, she handed the tablet back to Sel. She had located an area of the map that was occupied by nothing. _'Great'_ Sel thought, _'She didn't know how to use this after all…'_

Without warning, the alien stood up abruptly, causing Sel to push herself backwards in surprise. Siluria's arm started to glow a vibrant orange, and a virtual keyboard appeared over her forearm. Before her, the alien began to move her fingers along the virtualized surface, and then spoke in her foreign tongue. She waved her arm casually around the front of her body, and all the lights in the tent went out.

Sel contemplated calling for a guard, but decided to let it play out. She watched, awestruck, as Siluria's arm began to project a virtual galaxy in front of her. She used her three fingers to zoom into an area beyond the Veil. The Veil was an largely unexplored area of the galaxy, with a vast nebula disrupting sensors and obstructing any visual line of sight. It was also a very dangerous part of the galaxy, as almost no exploration ships having ever returned from the Veil.

She continued to zoom further in, coming across a system that did not exist on any known maps. She pointed to the first world in orbit around the start, then pointed to the bad sketch of the house. She then spoke directly to Sel, and repeated the same word twice.

"Rannoch".

Sel pulled out a notepad, and attempted to sketch what she saw in front of her. Siluria went through her home system and gave out the names of each orbiting body, and then pointed to the star and said "Tikkun".

"That must be your home system! What was it like? Why are you so far from home? What else lies beyond the Veil?" commented Sel, rather hurriedly.

The alien across from her stared blankly, unable to understand the lizard's foreign tongue. Sel then grabbed the tablet and drew a bunch of suited aliens standing on a planet, and circled them. She then drew a single lone suited alien, meant to look like Siluria – over exaggerating her features. She then illustrated a crude representation of the stasis pod she had found her in.

Sel pointed to the group of aliens, and looked at Siluria questioningly.

Siluria spoke a single word. "Quarian"

"Quarian" Sel repeated, the foreign word feeling very odd on her tongue. _'That is a very odd name for a species. I wonder if she has a name…'_

Sel then pointed to the lone quarian off on the side.

The alien responded yet again. "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy". There was a slight pause, and then she repeated "Tali'Zorah".

Sel pointed to Tali, and repeated "Tali'Zorah", to which the quarian nodded. She then pointed to herself, and spoke slowly.

"Sel Fesov."

The alien nodded, and repeated the words. _'She understands! This is progress!'_

Suddenly, the tent lit up brightly briefly– as if someone pointed a spotlight at it. A booming thunder clap broke her concentration, and seemed to break the flow that had been occurring between the two of them. Outside the wind picked up, lashing the rain against the tent.

Tali'Zorah was the first to resume their 'conversation'. She brought up her arm again, projecting the planet of Rannoch once more. She then showed a picture of another alien – standing in a well-decorated military uniform. The projection then moved to another planet. A planet in the Adanac system.

Sel paused for a moment, looking at the system. _'This looks familiar…Adanac III. She is showing me a video of Adanac III!'_

Adanac III was the third planet in the Adanac system, and was discovered by the Empire about a decade ago. The planet had the ruins of many urban centers, and looked to be deserted. Most notably, however, was that the surface of the planet appeared to have been heavily bombarded by massive kinetic weaponry. A mass-extinction event was suspected to have followed. There was small moon, on which the wreckage of several ships had been found. The scientists who discovered the space-faring vessels found that all technology had been stripped from the wrecked ships, leaving behind a ruinous carcass. While it was possible to explore the wrecks on the small moon, travel to the surface of the planet was suicidal. Massive amounts of element zero polluted the atmosphere, making any trip extremely hazardous. Many strange and violent biotic creatures exist on the surface.

In the same system, another planet sharing similar characteristics had been found. On the surface of Adanac IV, the remains of outposts were discovered among the massive impact craters. The Empire suspected the species that occupied the Adanac system had been wiped out by war, but were unable to determine who. It was as if they had been destroyed by a phantom race. The architecture of the species that occupied the Adanac system was found on ruins throughout the galaxy. _'An enemy powerful enough to destroy the Adanac culture must have left a mark somewhere…'_

Sel focussed again on Tali's projection. Massive vessels surrounded the planet, defending what appeared to be the Citadel – but with its massive arms shut. A attacking fleet comprised of smaller vessels attacked – comprised not only of ships of similar design to those found on the moon, but ships of design of seemingly different origin. The ships were attempting to form a defensive perimeter around the Citadel, and were getting decimated.

Tali abruptly turned off the projection, and her helmet tilted down once again. Realizing that she was seeing the demise of an entire race, she could sympathize. If she were to witness the downfall of her own Empire, she'd likely be depressed by watching it again too.

Sel placed the tablet in her backpack, and sat awkwardly on the edge of the military cot. So much information to process. While her hastily written report would likely be sufficient to please the Commander, she'd have to write a much more detailed summary once they got off world.

She turned over, laying down on her side, tail dangling over the edge. The air was very cool and crisp – the tip of her snout was getting numb. The sound of rain began to patter across the tent once more, which could only mean that their fortunes regarding the weather were not about to change. That meant a very miserable trip back to the ship. Sel began to doze off, when she noticed a faint orange glow opposite of her.

Tali'Zorah lay there, also on her side, with her virtual arm device activated once more. This time, it appeared to be playing back a recording of a previous time. Eager to see more of their ancient culture, the scientist decided to watch silently from the corner of her eye.

The video appeared to be in a kitchen, where a bunch of odd-looking aliens were standing in a circle. The camera looked downwards, showing a set of body features she instantly recognized as Tali's. Sadly, the orange light did not allow for color, but it was striking enough to see so many ancient races together in a three-dimensional video. There was a female alien, back against the counter, with fixed tendrils in lieu of hair. Her body was very sleek, and she stood there with her arms at her side, animated while she spoke. Another species was beside her, wearing armor that contained a large opening for the head. The facial construction appeared to be made entirely of solid material – perhaps bone, and the bird-like structure somewhat reminiscent of the raloi.

_'The armored suit must protect him, similar to Tali's'_, Sel thought.

A well-dressed male stood beside what she could only assume was a female of the same race – the body physique and height were similar. was similar. He was dressed sharp, and the motion and flow of the conversation appeared to be directed towards him. Given the vast amount of references to the word, did not take long to figure out that his name was Shepard.

Tali's point of view swayed immensely, bobbing side to side. The focus of her view seemed to be almost always directed to the male on her right. Tali noticed Sel's spying eyes, and shut down the projection.

* * *

Sel awoke groggily. The sound of an activity in the base greeted her. Lazily, she swung her legs over the edge of the cot, and stood up. _'It feels as if I got no sleep at all…'_ she thought, looking at her watch._'04.30. What the heck are they doing making so much noise so early….'_

She stepped out into the rain, mud splashing around her every footstep. Spotting the Commander, she moved off to find out what was going on.

"Commander Alaya, why are we moving out so early? It is hours until the daylight!"

"A patrol of Raloi soldiers was spotted in the vicinity of the Terrian ruins. It will only be a matter of time before they follow the tracks make their way down here. I hope to be out of here by then, as I'd rather not be the cause of an inter-species war." Ara replied, rather cooly.

"Do you have anything to report on the creature?" she continued.

"Tali'Zorah, Commander" Sel commented with a sharp undertone.

"Pardon?" The Commander said, now directing her full attention at the scientist.

"The 'creature', as you so call it, has a name. Tali'Zorah, for short. You will be quite impressed from the information I've been able to gather. There are also some important matters that we'll need to discuss, preferably alone."

Sel was referring to the massive space-faring vessels that Tali had shown her on her virtual arm. To be honest, the sheer firepower that was shown terrified her, and thought it would be best to put such information in more capable hands. The Commander's tongue forked out of her mouth, and gave a delighted hiss.

"Excellent. The risk of this trip may just pay off. Grab your gear, the soldiers will disassemble the tents. We'll be moving out within the hour. Keep 'Tali-Zorah' close by, we don't need her getting separated from the group."

Sel departed the Commander's company, and went to get her gear, and rouse Tali'Zorah out of bed.

* * *

Tali'Zorah was hungry, cold, and very sore. Her muscles still ached from the after effects of her long time in stasis. The forced marching she had to do did nothing but aggravate her pain. The constant loss of traction in the mud strained injuries she sustained the day earlier.

_'Have I not suffered enough?' _Tali thought dimly _'Not only am I surrounded by a semi-hostile species, but I am completely at their mercy'_

The hunger Tali was feeling was growing stronger. While stasis stalled any metabolism in her body, now that she was active and moving again – that was an entirely different story. The little rations they had latter in the war did little to nothing for stored energy. The hours of marching that passed did little to assist.

_'Food…' _Tali began to let her mind wander. _'I could use some delicious food….maybe one of Garrus' meals. Oh I'd kill for some Turian food. What if they don't serve dextro-amino foods? I'll have to scan any food they serve me…'_

Tali's thought pattern was shaken as the group began to approach an end to the forest. The group of soldiers suddenly began to pick up the pace, as if renewed in their sense of urgency.

As they entered the clearing, Tali'Zorah found herself staring at a very familiar sight. Before her lay the unmistakable design of something she knew for many years – a long sleek body, two wings containing two engine exhaust ports a piece. The two stabilizers on the nose, with two stabilizers on the top rear.

"No….that is not possible!" she said aloud, trying to make sense of it. "Not even I couldn't even keep those engines running for that long!"

Sel looked at her new companion, wishing greatly that she could understand what she was saying.

Commander Alaya tuned to the two of them, stood upright and proud, and triumphantly stated "I bring you the Phoenix, the pride of the Empire's technology – a military vessel unmatched by any of the Council races."

Tali turned to Sel, watching her facial features – trying to gain some insight into what she was thinking. In fact, she was pretty sure she knew anyway – the Normandy had been a stunning sight the first time she'd laid eyes on such a majestic creature. The Normandy was her baby – and now she stood here once more, thousands of years later.

Suddenly, a feeling of excitement and joy filled her. _'The Normandy! Shepard! Shepard must have survived!'_

Tali'Zorah followed the Commander very close. She was filled with a renewed burst of energy and excitement to see HER Commander, the one she'd spent much of her adult life following. As she approached closer, she noticed the change in paint scheme – her Alliance colors were replaced with a green camouflage – indicating that the ship spent much time on ground missions. _'So Shepard has found another purpose for the stealth. He knew exactly how, and where to find me! Of course! Why didn't I think of that earlier?'_

Sel had been surprised by the sudden outburst by the alien, but was quick to catch her as they reached the ship. They boarded through the rear cargo hold, while the soldiers began loading all the gear behind them. As she walked across the rear of the craft – Tali stopped to listen. _Clank, clank, clank._ The sound of the footfalls sounded different. She then stopped at one of the support beams, and knocked on it with her three fingers. _Clank, clank, clank. _The material was different – it sounded less dense. _'They've retrofitted the entire superstructure.' _She thought to herself. _'Not surprising, given the amount of time it has been.'_

The Commander brought them up to the Command Deck on the lift. As they rose up the levels, Tali decided she'd try to make contact with an old friend.

"Hey EDI, are you and Joker still together after all these years?" chuckled Tali.

There was no response. "Alcatraz, can you put me on the same communication channel as EDI?"

"Creator Zorah," Alcatraz responded, "there are no electronic signatures on the vessel that match the platform called EDI"

Tali frowned. _'Perhaps something happened to her? Shepard should have been with her!'_

* * *

The elevator doors opened, and Sel watched as Tali'Zorah broke out from behind the Commander, dodged around some stunned personnel, and began to make her way towards the cockpit. She grabbed the alien's arm in attempt to stop her, but she lost her grip on the wet metal plating. Tali did not make it far, as standing outside the cockpit were two armed security personnel, preparing to restrain the intruder.

The pilot of the vessel turned around, and let out a shocked hiss. He was three meters away from a species not seen in thousands of years, and thus it was no surprise that he shook nervously. His tail twitched side to side, rapidly striking the cockpit surfaces.

"What kind of trickery is this, trying to scare a pilot like that! Could kill a lizard, you know? The who is going to fly this expensive bucket of technology around?" the pilot hissed yet again.

"Sel, restrain your…subject. Unlike the civilians, military personnel tend to be a bit trigger happy when it comes to surprises.", cautioned the Commander.

"You mean to tell me you didn't radio in our discovery ahead of time?" Sel said, with a clear tone of surprise in her voice.

"It's not like I could just broadcast it to the world, which is exactly what I would have been doing should I have tried to communicate with the Phoenix. Raloi decryption technology far exceeds our ability to encrypt our messages. Would you rather her to fall into the hands of them?" spat the Commander.

In the meantime, Tali looked somewhat deflated. Her body language became rather limp, and her head dropped down. Sel spoke in a concerning voice, hoping the tone would get the point across. "Tali, is there a problem?"

The alien rose her arm in the air, and once again the orange interface grew from her left arm. The two security guards drew their pistols and trained them on the alien.

"Don't shoot! This is not a weapon!" Sel shouted, but the guards still had their weapons on Tali.

"Stand down soldiers. If she makes any threatening moves, stun her." Commander Alaya spoke swiftly.

The interface morphed into a virtualization of the cockpit. Well, almost a virtualization of the cockpit – there were some pretty noticeable differences. The layout of the consoles and interfaces were radically different, and the pilot was similar in species to the projections she saw last night.

The projection changed to an external view of the ship at bay. The ship was docked to a very familiar docking bay – actually, identical to those on the Citadel.

"Do you care to explain I am watching right now, Miss Fesov? Because I'll tell you right now, it appears as if she has footage of our vessel docked at the Citadel." The Commander was now speaking rather alarmed. "Did we just bring a Council operative aboard our most advanced vessel?!"

"No, no – I don't think it is anything of the sort, Ara." Sel cautioned – accidentally using the Commander's first name. "I think what we are looking at is a projection of past events. I saw something like this last night – and they appear to be taken from a helmet camera from her suit. She captured these images over 25,000 years ago."

The Commander pondered this thought. The Tali'Zorah broke the silence, and spoke in their native tongue. "This…correct. I….crew….Normandy, the Pheonix."

The lizards around Tali stared, not knowing what to make of it. While they did not know that Alcatraz was helping with the translation process – or that it even exists – it was the bluntness of the facts that stunned them. They were on a vessel designed over 25,000 years ago, by a long-extinct race. Not only that, but in the short clip they saw, the Citadel was a bustling hub of activity._ 'Where had they all gone?'_

"Impossible! This ship was designed by the Empire! I was there as they built it, this ship is not the same." Alaya was stunned.

"Do you know where we got the technology from? Could it have come from that outpost that we discovered on the moon of Yavin III?" Sel inquired. "A lot of the advances in my field trickled down from that discovery, so it is only logical that the military would have benefited as well"

"No. We developed it on our own! The Empire is superior to the other races. We do not follow the tails of other races!" the Commander hissed, denying the facts before her.

Sel hissed. "Don't be such an addled egg! You cannot deny what is right before you! Here, standing before you, is an alien nobody has seen since ancient times. You saw her get out of stasis, and YOU saw the video as clear as I did. We are clearly not the first people to get his technology, and judging by the traffic at the Citadel, there were obviously many space faring races at the time."

The Commander was furious. While she had a point, being called and addled egg was a disgraceful insult. "I think it is time that me and…Tali'Zorah…had a one on one chat. Guards, please escort Miss Fesov to the crew bunks. Maybe there she'll learn to cool her tongue."

Sel protested, but was quickly escorted away. The Commander and Tali'Zorah headed for the elevator. They were heading to the Commander's quarters.


	5. Chapter 5 - Forgotten Lands

**Chapter 5: Forgotten Lands**

Tali'Zorah slowly awoke from her sleep. Sleep was putting it somewhat generously – it was more like bouts of restless nightmares punctuated by a brief peaceful nap here and there. As she awoke, her body tired as always, she found herself staring out the side chamber of the Phoenix. On the Normandy, these 'quarters' had been occupied by Zaeed. Several months had passed since she'd first boarded the Empire's stealth vessel, but it still did not have the same feeling of home as the Normandy did. Tali shut her eyes, relaxing her facial muscles, and sighed heavily.

The Pheonix was a close replica to the second Normandy, but it was different in many noticeable ways. It was not the engine systems – those didn't take long to figure out, she'd managed to boost the performance by 15% in her first two months. No, it was the sounds that took much longer to get used to. The hum was entirely different, the language of the crew hard to understand. EDI was no longer here to converse with, and Garrus was not here to inject his usual humour. The food was mediocre, as the cook was not used to preparing special dextro foods. As it turned out, most dextro-based creatures in this galactic civilization were held as pets. The worst thing above all, Shepard was no longer here to keep her company, to reassure her. Ara Alaya and Sel Fesov were perhaps the closest friends she had on this ship, but they paled in comparison to the friends she had on the Normandy. She'd trust them to cover her back, but she could not bring herself to confide her feelings with them.

Instead, she lay here alone, on her way back to her home system for the first time 25,000 years. Hopefully, they'd discover some old geth military resources to compete with the Council military. As it turned out their military never ventured past the Veil, which meant this part of the galaxy was relatively unexplored. As Commander Alaya put it, _'since the Raloi dominated the Council decisions, the only way forward is with them removed.' _This way they could gain the influence required to pull the galaxy together – unified – to fight the Reapers. _'Hopefully this strategy works better than it did for the protheans' _she thought, bitterly.

Tali propped herself on her arms, noticing how much her suit had been battleworn over the years. She ran her hand over the metal breastplate. The metal surface was scuffed and dinged, its paint chipped and faded. The decorative fabric on her sides was frayed and full of holes. She began to pull off to the side – but felt it catch. _'Damn this aging suit of mine, always catching on things'_ she thought, rather annoyed. _'I probably tore yet another section.'_

Tali turned, rather impatiently, to remove the caught piece of fabric, and shrieked. A still body lay beside her, slowly stirring with the sudden activity in the room. Tali jumped out of the cot, stumbling into the wall, reaching for her knife on the corner table.

"Tali? What's the matter?" spoke the intruder.

The intruder was not lizard like. No, it was much more familiar. Much more…fleshy. It was human! It was Shepard.

"….Shepard? What…how…? What are you doing here?" Tali practically screamed, her mind unable to comprehend what she saw before her.

"Are you feeling okay Tali? You've been down here for three months, avoiding me. I figured I would come down here and keep you company last night, but you were totally out of it. Do you want Doctor Chakwas to take a look at you? You've been under a lot of stress lately" Shepard spoke, with obvious concern in his voice.

"No, no – it's just…I...I was having a very strange dream" she responded nervously, still clutching the knife in her hand. While Shepard had only been a few feet from her, the knife was the only thing in the room that felt familiar to her. She gently put it back down on the table.

"Hey now, is it a crime to comfort the cute quarian that brings me so much joy in life?" Shepard smiled wearily, getting up from the cot. His reassuring smile disarming the defensive stance she'd been holding.

Tali studied the figure standing in front of her. Shepard looked the same, with his chiselled chest and muscular arms. The battle-scarred face bared no difference, down to every small scar. She knew that face intimately. Indeed, this was Shepard.

"Keelah Shepard! The dream I just had would frighten even Kal'Reegar down to his core!" Tali exclaimed, hugging Shepard in an embrace.

"Would it scare even a krogran?" Shepard humoured.

"Perhaps not Wrex…I don't think anything scares him" she replied in her typically cute voice.

"It was a dream of the Reapers winning, Shepard. It was if I was Javik – awakening from stasis centuries in the future" she continued. "…you and the rest of the Normandy crew were dead."

Tali began to tear up – and she did her best to mask it. Shepard began to hug her intensely.

"Shepard…I know you care, but you're putting strain on my suit" she chuckled. But he did not lighten his grip.

Tali jokingly broke the embraced, and playfully pushed Shepard back onto the bed. It may have been Shepard she pushed, but it was not Shepard that fell back on the bed. Instead, it was something horrific and deformed. Its body was not organic – at least not fully. The creature in front of her, giving off the familiar blue hue of a husk, stared straight at her. A mechanical growl howled at her as its armed reached out, lunging for her. She dove, grasping for the knife on the table once more.

The husk collided with the side of the window with a dull pang. As it aggressively lurched towards its target, Tali's knife was already positioned for a killing stroke. Her knife plunged through the husk's optical cavity, followed by a quick slash down the control conduits down the spine. The husk collapsed to the room's floor, disabled.

Tali tore out of her room, collapsing into the wall and stumbling towards the ground. As she picked herself up, the sounds of more Reaper husks filled the hallway, their metallic feet clattering across the Normandy's floors. The quarian found herself heading into the elevator for escape.

"EDI, take me to the main deck, I need to talk to Shepard. We've got husks running around the ship!" Tali spoke, alarmed at the sudden turn of events her morning had encountered.

"Tali, I must insist that you remain in this elevator." EDI responded. "You will be held for questioning"

"What? Why?" Tali spoke, out of breath and slightly confused.

"You've severely injured Shepard. We need to know why", the Normandy's AI spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

"No, that thing was _not_ Shepard" replied the quarian. "Alcatraz, please override the elevator's control. I wish to talk to Shepard."

"Yes Creator Zorah" her suit responded, complying with the quarian's request.

The elevator doors opened and she found herself running out into a large catacomb that housed many stasis pods. Before she knew what was happening, bullets tore around her, and she instinctively dove towards a pile of fallen chunk of concrete and rock. The usual sound of Reaper growls and screams echoed throughout the chamber. Ahead, she saw Shepard's position being descended upon by a dozen reaper forces. She had to reach him, to stop the Normandy from being overrun.

She jumped over the debris, and ran towards Shepard, who was now only forty meters away. A terrifying scream pierced through the noise of the room as a reaperized Asari warped to Shepard's position.

"Shepard! Look out!" Tali screamed, trying to get closer to Shepard. _'Tali, you bosh'tet! Why didn't you grab more than this knife!' _she cursed to herself.

It was too late. Before her, the banshee had Shepard in her grasp. Shepard was pleading for help, but nobody was around to support him. The asari let out another howl as it plunged its claws through the Commander's torso. Shepard collapsed to the ground.

"Shepard! SHEPARD!" Tali screamed, blindly running towards her beloved Commander.

* * *

"How long has she been like this, Sel?" Alaya said to her scientist, as they stood outside the door. The silence was punctuated by the occasional scream, muffled by the closed door.

"She has been restless for much of the night, but that is quite 'normal' as you know. The screams are new, though. They started a couple hours ago – I was hoping she'd wake herself up by now" responded the female scientist, concerned about her friend's well-being.

"I can't stand to see a soldier like this. I am going to try and rouse her" the Commander stated.

"I don't think that is wise. To pull her out of a nightmare that powerful will leave her very disorientated. She could harm you" commented Doctor Zek, the Phoenix's doctor, weight in with his opinion.

"I want her part of the science team. I need her to confirm that we are in the right system. I don't feel particularly safe near this moon…it feels like we're being watched. I don't want to be here longer than absolutely necessary." The Commander turned and entered Tali's quarters.

Sel turned to Zek. "Do you think she was serious? There is nothing out here – nothing the sensors could pick up anyway."

"I don't know Sel. Just simply being out here is rather unnerving. You know how many ships pass beyond the Veil, never to return." The doctor let out a hiss. "You know she's right. I don't feel safe out here."

There was a loud scream from the chamber beside them. Both the doctor and the scientist turned to see the quarian leap out of bed, pushing the startled commander backwards. There was a odd electronic sound that emitted from the quarian's omnitool. A blade emerged from it, and narrowly missed Alaya's head by a few centimetres. Their commander was instinctively pushing the quarian's arm away. It plunged into a nearby chair, piercing through to the backside and into the bulkhead.

The three of them quickly subdued the disorientated alien. They sat her in the chair, calming her.

"Sorry Commander, I didn't realized it was you." Tali was looking down, avoiding eye contact.

"It is okay. Dreams of the war again?" Sel questioned, softly.

"Regrettably. I'd rather not talk about it right now. Have we reached the Tikkun system?" The quarian was eager to change the subject.

"I do believe so. We're currently orbiting a moon around a smaller planet. We detected some strange anomalies on it and thought it was worth investigating."

"Which planet?" questioned the alien.

"The fourth one from the star."

_'Odd. I don't remember there ever being a moon here.' _Tali thought to herself.

"You mentioned anomalies, yes? Lets head down to the surface and take a look."

* * *

The 'moon' was in fact no moon, but the wreckage of an ancient starbase. The sensors had indicated it was almost a billion tonnes. As they walked across the surface, Tali recognized why this hunk of metal felt familiar.

"I remember this station. When my race returned to reclaim the system from the geth, this was one of the orbital platforms we'd destroyed on our way the homeworld. I'm surprised it has not fallen out of orbit." Tali noted to the Commander.

"This is massive for a space station. How could they build such a structure?" Zek said, curiously.

"The Geth were alone for a very long time, with no intrusions. They also did not require any food, oxygen, or gravity to build their devices and stations. Their largest construction was when they attempted to build a giant solar array around the star, but we destroyed that as well", replied the quarian.

"Seems like a waste. After your victory, would it not have been useful to re-purpose such an array for yourselves?" The Commander was clearly scoffing at such a waste of resources.

"Yes, but at the time there were large elements of the flotilla that wanted to destroy anything geth related. We could not risk divisions in the fleet, especially after the arrival of the Reapers. Besides, after we destroyed the Reaper presence on Rannoch, we were able to make peace with the geth." Tali'Zorah silently winced, trying to suppress the memories such thoughts often brought up. She hoped that they would end that line of questioning.

The small expedition team descended through an opening at the top of a heavily decaying corridor. Fused metal beams and plating created dangerous obstacles. In many places, giant holes stretched downwards for hundreds of meters, created from the heavy fire that the station had sustained millennia ago. The dark silence was chilling.

"This place is a death trap. Would there be anything of value left in this station?" Commander Alaya said, rather hushed – as if afraid to awaken anything that might remain on the station.

"Yes, or at least I hope so. We never had a chance to strip down this station. It is possible the Reapers could have overlooked it as they passed through the system again after the main battle at Earth." Tali was unsure, but did not want to give in to the Commander doubts.

They continued deeper into the structure for over an hour, and the damage appeared to lessen. They reached a circular room with several consoles surrounding four pillars. The wall opposite of them was exposed – likely by cannon fire. One of the soldiers approached the edge and looked out.

"Damn, that gap must be a quarter of a kilometre wide! What kind of projectile could cause such damage?"

Tali knew no weapon in the quarian flotilla could create such damage. "That would be a perfect example of what a single reaper's main cannon can do to a structure. They likely fired on the station to make sure it was not just dormant."

Tali'Zorah was not interested in the damage done by the Reaper, but in areas that were absent of. The relative lack of secondary damage in this section might mean that the consoles should be able to draw power from their original source. It was highly unlikely, but worth a shot.

She approached the console, and set her shotgun down off to the side. Scanning through the various buttons and levers, she found something that might work. She attempted to toggle the power on, and nothing happened.

_'Stupid girl. Of course that wouldn't work'_ she thought to herself.

A slight hum began to emit from below her feet, and dim lighting backlight on the console began to sputter. Slowly, the room came to life – but just barely.

One of the soldiers began to panic, his tail twitching rapidly. He raised his pistol, and looked directly at the quarian. "Commander, your alien 'pet' has led us into a trap!"

He opened fire towards Tali, who found herself having to jump out of the way. The low gravity meant she ended up colliding with the wall. The gunshots connected a few meters away, striking several of the glowing consoles. There was a slight explosion, and shards of metal ricocheted around the room.

Whatever power had remained in reserve was disrupted by the gunshots. Tali'Zorah was not pleased. "You stupid bosh'tet! Do you not realized the amount of information in a station like this could help advance every technology you have by decades? Imagine what you could do with self-replicating AI as an ally. You'll need this damn technology if you wish to beat the reapers!"

The Commander punched the offending lizard in the gut, causing him to hiss loudly and drop to his knees. As Alaya turned, his pistol was again in his hand, but this time pointed at his Commander. "You're bringing us out here to die, and you take the side of that...alien…that thing? You still don't know if it is a Council operative or not."

Alaya turned around rapidly, catching the soldier by surprise and knocking his weapon away.

She began to edge him closer to the gaping hole in the side of the room. "I will not have such reckless disobedience aboard my ship. If you want to fly by the seat of your pants, here is your chance, hotshot."

The offending lizard soon found himself floating across the large gap in the station, cursing the commander until he was outside of communication range. If the other soldiers had any protests, they did not voice their concern.

The small explosion exposed a previously hidden section of the room, where many beams and bulkhead plating lay scattered. It was here Alcatraz noticed something unusual.

"Creator Zorah, I believe that there are intact geth units in the debris in the far corner of the room"

"Yes, I see it too." Tali moved towards the debris, and began to uncover the geth units.

They were heavily damaged, and appeared to be completely dormant – possibly destroyed beyond repair. However, the units could still prove to be valuable to scientists looking to develop efficient robot bodies.

Commander Alaya seemed to come to the same conclusion. "We'll let our scientists back figure out what to do with these. Lets take as many as we can carry, and make our way back to the surface. We don't have a lot of oxygen left."

* * *

They approached the surface, and hoisted themselves out of the passageway and back to the 'surface'. They found that they were not alone, however. A group of soldiers were standing at the top, frantically pulling their salvage up.

"Commander Alaya, why did you not answer your communicator? There is an approaching vessel on the long-range scanners, and based on its signature we believe it to the a raloi battlecruiser." The officer was quite anxious.

"Well, don't just stand there. Get this salvage to the ship. I'd rather not risk us being discovered with this cargo!"

* * *

By the time the Phoenix managed to leave the surface of the wrecked station, the Raloi vessel had rapidly closed the distance between them. There was no hiding the fact that they were out here.

The Commander obviously wanted to keep the opposing ship at bay. "Power up the shields and laser batteries, but do not open fire. Let us see if we can deter them long enough to escape"

Almost immediately, the raloi vessel hailed their ship. "Unknown vessel. You are to cease your present course and shutdown your engines and armaments and prepare to be boarded. This is your first and final warning."

In a matter of seconds, the battlecruiser was unleashing the fury of her cannon arrays on the Phoenix. "Those bastards didn't even give us a chance to respond!"

The firepower from the battlecruiser was overwhelming. The Pheonix's primary goal was stealth, not combat. Shot after shot danced across the weakening shields, creating a spectacular and dangerous lightshow for those on board. Just as the shields collapsed, the rain of fire ceased, and instead was replaced with a new kind of weapon. The ship shuddered, and the lights in the deck flickered. Whatever the raloi battlecruiser had fired at them, it had disabled their main systems.

"Damn those raloi. I believe they mean to board us. They keep coming up with new ways to steal our technology!" Commander Alaya hissed.

She did not take long in issuing orders. "Tali, I'd like you and Sel to hold up down in your quarters. Use anything you can find for cover. Take that shotgun of yours and fire at any raloi that come down that hallway."

"Officer Zilo, take some of the desks from the laboratory and bring them up here. Put them in cover so you can easily flank any soldiers breaching the airlock. Send the rest of your men to guard the storage bay, to ensure they do not breach through there."

The lights on the ship flickered again, and went out entirely. The hum from the engine sputtered, and then abruptly died out. Emergency lights along the top of the deck barely came to life, leaving visibility on the main deck low. The commander moaned.

_'Great. We're already likely to be outgunned, and now we can't even see what we'll be shooting.'_

* * *

The metallic clank of footsteps echoed across the nearly-silent bridge of the raloi battlecruiser. Around the deck, various raloi servicemen were busy keeping an eye on their scanners, surveying the vast empty space that lay beyond the Veil. Control panels glowed orange, emitting a dim ambient light across the roof in the dark cockpit. The quite sounds of electronic keystrokes activating filled the silence. The Commander of the combat vessel sat in his chair, seemingly bored with lull in travel. To his side, an stern and tough soldiers stood, arms crossed across his large, dark blue combat suit. Hard bone plates coming off the top of his head, sharp eyes on a bone face staring forward out into space.

This creature – a turian, as he had come to discover during his year aboard the vessel – defied the odds in face of what the galaxy through at him. At the end of a species-destroying war with an unknown race called the Reapers, he and thousands others hid in stasis. Garrus Vakarian, a soldier who'd spent much of his time fighting the perils of the galaxy, found himself the last of a race that time had forgotten about. According to the turian, the feeling of isolation was nearly indescribable – what felt like a few hours to him had in fact been around 50,000 years. While the scientists were fairly sure of their estimate, they could find little evidence of what destroyed the ancient civilizations.

Commander Jaozak stared at his data pad, going over the notes of the journey. This journey was perilous, and it was crucial he stay on top of the many reports from all over the vessel. Ships were often lost in this area of space – even the most sophisticated technology of the raloi could not penetrate the barrier of the Veil. Communication between the Veil and Council space was also very difficult – near impossible. They were truly out here alone. The detached feeling was enough to make some of the crew nervous. _'Likely,'_ he thought, _'how our resident turian feels'_

The language barrier between their species and the alien's had initially been very difficult to breach. Raloi scientists spent months breaking down the taloi language in such a matter that the turian could understand. It was similar to the problems their species encountered on the Citadel centuries prior.

When the Raloi had first discovered the Citadel, they'd been using rudimentary map markings they'd found deep in the cave structures of their home planet of Turvess. As more and more relays were discovered in systems across the galaxy, they eventually came across the massive space station hidden in a majestic nebula they came to call the Citadel. Half a century later, other races discovered the Citadel – and started its path to the galactic political center it is today. While language barriers in those days were broken down by the sheer volume of multi-species contact, this turian was the ONLY point of contact for his language.

Once the barrier was broken down, the turian described a terrifying tale of destruction – destruction that was scarcely believable. Living warships that rained destruction on advanced civilizations, deconstructing entire organic populations to produce warships. A nightmarish thought – even more so considering the sheer volume of ruins that had been discovered on planets across the galaxy. One of the benefits of having an inter-species council was the ability to centralize so much scientific and historical records into a single library.

The taulians, a war mongering lizard-like species of the Yavin system, brought tales of another solar system they had discovered, the Adanac system. As far as he was concerned, that system was home to some of the eeriest sights in the galaxy. There resided the graveyard of a thousand ships, stripped of technology and left floating in space. They were essentially corpses of an ancient military, lost in time. Much of the debris orbited a 'dead' planet, contaminated with so much Element Zero that trips to the surface often resulted in death – a discovery made by some poor scientists who first visited the surface. The atmosphere was thin, but contained enough oxygen for hazardous biotic animals to survive. From space, the ruins of its massive cities were visible, with their crumbling skyscrapers often littering the ground levels below. Massive impact craters dotted the landscape, indicative of massive bombardments. The system had seen much war, that was clear. According to the turian, this 'Sol' system was the site of the largest space battle in his species' history.

Garrus broke the silence of the deck, speaking in a tone of such authority that often garnered him much attention. "Commander, this first planet in this system should have what we are looking for. If the years have been kind, you'll find the evidence the Council is looking for"

The Council was not ready to dismiss such a threat as the Reapers outright, but did not wish to commit a lot of resources to fighting it without proof. They sent him and his battlecruiser to work with Garrus to prove his wild tales. While Garrus had been very unimpressed with the initial response, threatening that _'ignore it would cost them everything they had anyway'_, he had been somewhat pacified – it was better than nothing.

"Do you know exactly what we will find here? That asteroid base was entirely devoid of anything significant, minus the mineable element zero, and the last planet we were on contained no trace of power sources significant enough to power 1,000 stasis pods." Jaozak asked calmly, without any hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"I don't know exactly what we will find out here. During the war, an AI race called the geth occupied the systems out here. I'm hoping that some evaded detection. Their race worked off of a collective mind, and were later upgrade by the Reapers. Any surviving tech would be beneficial to us." the turian replied, crossing his arms defensively.

"An entire race of AI? Would they not have joined the Reapers, to destroy organic culture?"

"Actually, many did. However, many more opposed the Reapers, and joined us in the battle in the Sol system. If not, we will hopefully find some good archaeological ruins of the quarians, the race who built them" Garrus responded solemnly, looking away from the Commander and back out the window.

As a fellow soldier, he knew Vakarian hid a lot from him – as many soldiers did. To show emotion was to show weakness. When he initially met Garrus, the turian often quizzed about other stasis pods. Apparently, his pod had been in a shelter with thousands – some his friends. Sadly, the pirates kept no records of where they stole their loot, and searches of the surrounding systems had been fruitless.

Ahead, the planet Garrus referred to as Kaddi, loomed ahead. The planet had a single orbiting body – a moon.

"We should land on that moon, the geth typically established bases outside of the gravity of planets. As they did not need to breathe, it was much easier for them to mine the moons of a system rather than bring materials from the planet surface." Garrus commented.

"I agree – Kahl, set us in orbit around that moon, I'd like to scan it for any structures. We'll continue back on course as soon as you've done so." Commander Jaozak directed to his pilot.

"Yes Sir" replied the pilot, readjusting the course to intercept the orbiting moon.

* * *

Garrus could barely feel the ship adjusting its course. The Normandy had been a much more 'personal' ship, and her slightest movements could be felt by anyone caring to pay attention. Joker took that intimacy with a ship to a whole new level – and that was not including his 'relationship' with EDI.

Being in the quarian home system brought back memories of the Reaper War. He had seen so much war, it seemed to be all he could remember. So much blood had been shed, so much sacrificed. Sacrificed for what? So that a single turian could live? _'Sovereign was right…we couldn't comprehend the scale of the Reapers.'_

Despite the original skirmishes between the turian fleet and the Reaper fleet over Palaven, nobody could truly comprehend the vast numbers they commanded. When they arrived at Earth with the Crucible, they soon realized that Harbinger had not been bluffing. The sheer number of Reaper ships was staggering. At the Battle of Earth, Alliance brass estimated that there were 75,000 – 100,000 Sovereign-class Reapers alone, not to mention the smaller destroyer class ones that did much of the surface fighting. The images of turian dreadnaughts getting torn apart by the massive vessels, or the destruction of quarian flotilla…those were images he would never be able to forget. The waves of occuli that had swarmed their fighters…..Garrus shuddered.

Shepard was supposed to deliver them victory. He pull together the galaxy's entire fleet, but sadly also got them to build the Reapers a war-winning weapon – and handed it to them on a silver platter. Not that they knew that's what it was at the time. They were driven by fear. Fear that they'd be unable to win the war conventionally – which was likely a fact. It turned out that even Commander Shepard had a breaking point: the fear of such an impossibly large force pushed him to take extreme risks.

Garrus thought back to the conversation they had before going into stasis. He remembered the cold wind, the gloom that had descended upon much of the crew at the time.

"Go out there and give them hell. You were born to do this" he had encouraged Shepard, as Reaper forces first began their assault.

"Goodbye Garrus. And if I'm up there in that bar and you're not, I'll be looking down. I'll always have your back" Shepard had responded, somewhat solemnly.

_'Perhaps it was not fear?'_ Garrus thought to himself. _'The Reapers were always one step ahead of us the entire war, right up to the end. What if Shepard himself was indoctrinated?'_

The thought made him ill. The Crucible had been largely pushed by a few select people, and those were men in very high and key positions. Such positions that had crippled previous empires. He secretly knew, through Tali, that Shepard had been having some pretty intense nightmares, with those of the dead whispering to him. _'Could those be the same whispers that those scientists in the Bahak system? Shepard had been exposed to Reaper tech many times in his career. Theoretically it could be possible….?'_

Garrus shook his head briefly, as if physically trying to rid the idea from his head. He was subconsciously tapping his finger on his chin, still staring deeply into space. _'No, the prothean VI wouldn't have let him through….not unless that prothean VI was a Reaper trap as well.'_

Indoctrination would explain so many things, but leave so many unanswered. Sure, the Reapers were always one step ahead – and would explain how they knew about so many of the supposedly secret bunkers. But would someone who was indoctrinated be able to keep so much of his personality? To fool those closest to him? _'Perhaps Anderson or Admiral Hackett were indoctrinated instead' _– Shepard was in constant communication with them, right up until the end. What better way to know the activities of the Alliance and Council?

Garrus' head began to ache. There were so many possibilities that could have resulted in the downfall of their civilization, and yet he had nobody to discuss them with. He could try to talk with the Commander, but how could he possibly relate? Indoctrination was such a hard concept to truly wrap a talon around, that even he did not truly understand it. The only person who knew Shepard better than Garrus was possibly Tali, and she had long since died with the rest of the crew.

"Commander Jaozak. We're approaching the planet closest to the relay. There appears to be an unidentified ship on the surface of its only moon. It is barely giving off a signature, but it is there." Kahl reported, somewhat nervously.

As they neared the moon, the commander became eager to hear about the unidentified vessel, which was now registering as in orbit around the moon. "Can you give me any more details of the ship?"

"While the ship's engine signature does not seem to match any in our databases, it's the signature of its hull appears to be comprised of materials known to be in Taulian spacecraft. It could be a new kind of ship we have not seen out here before."

The taulian spacecraft moved to intercept the raoli battlecruiser, adjusting its course and moving at an increased speed. Garrus was now paying close attention to the events at hand, having dismissed his previous train of thought.

"Commander, that craft looks like it is on an intercept course with us. Does that small frigate hope to stand a chance against this battlecruiser?" Garrus interjected.

"The Taulians have been known to act in quite unpredictable fashion. Being this far outside of Council space, I suspect they will take the risk and attack us."

"Sir, I'm reading increasing power in the ship's relays. I think she means to open fire on us." One of the technicians was eagerly looking at his screen, scanning the readings the ship was giving off.

"So they want to play, do they. Prepare to open fire on the vessel, forward batteries only. Send a cessation challenge, and open fire only on my order." The Commander's demeanour had changed, and was now entirely concerned with the foreign vessel before them.

As Garrus looked over the shoulder of the technician in front of him, he realized that the vessel had a similar – no, identical – profile to his former stationing, the Normandy.

"Commander! This taulian frigate is identical in profile to the frigate I served on during the Reaper conflict. I would suggest that this vessel could contain some significant information regarding the Reapers. They would have obtained the blueprints from one of our scientist's data caches."

"Is that so? Well, let's disable the ship then – we'll board her and see what we can get out of her crew." Jaozak looked quite happy to be engaging in a military operation again, as opposed to an exploratory one.

"Garrus, if you wish you can join the boarding party. We'll cripple the ship using some of our passive attacks. I'll have them meet you in armory. Hopefully this will be the break we've been looking for."

"Will do." Garrus quickly left the bridge, heading down to gear up.

"Jaozak, you do realize that attacking a Taulian spacecraft outside of defence is an act of war, breaching the armistice? The Council will not look kindly on this." His pilot said, wearily.

"Communications cannot get through the Veil, and she appears to be alone. We'll tell the Council that we were attacked – and be sure that there are no taulians left alive to state otherwise."

* * *

The boarding parties were not at successful as Garrus had hoped for. The hangar bay and engine room were taken, but with heavy casualties. The taulians had entrenched themselves well, slaughtering two squads before retreating to the upper decks. Meanwhile, it took five dead and 4 wounded to take the main deck, while the bulk of the enemy forces having retreated down. They effectively had control of the ship, but the middle sections were going to be difficult to secure without sustaining substantial losses. If the ship was like the Normandy SR2, the weapons systems, crew quarters, and medical bay would still in enemy hands, but as far as he could tell those systems were still disabled. Hopefully they'd be able to get some of their own men to the medical bay once the fighting ceased.

Commander Jaozak had come aboard to take a look at the systems of the frigate. He seemed genuinely impressed with the ship.

"You know, Garrus, this is probably the most impressive taulian ship I have ever seen. If their empire produced enough of these, they could easily overwhelm a battlecruiser."

Garrus nodded. "In my cycle, this ship was very fast, and very sleek. It had stealth capabilities, and adapted Reaper technology made it even more deadly."

"You wouldn't happen to know how to redesign some of that technology, would you?" the Commander responded in a hopeful tone.

Garrus chuckled. "Ha, ha. No, I knew how to tweak and adjust the systems, but to rebuild an entire weapons battery would be something for an engineer, not a soldier like myself. "

"A shame. It would be nice to have that skill" – the ship jerked, interrupting the Commander's sentence.

The ship jerked again, knocking the two to the ground. There was a loud snap, and the clamps holding the battlecruiser to the frigate broke free. The airlock doors hissed loudly as air escaped, and then slammed shut.

Jaozak radioed to his pilot. "Kahl, what is going on? The frigate's console is still showing the weapons as disabled."

The communicator crackled "Comm…er. There is an unidentified ship…..oving to engage."

"How did our sensors not pick them up? Where did they come from?"

There was no response out of the communicator. "…Kahl?"

There was a large flash in the cockpit of the Phoenix. They looked out to see the raloi battlecruiser engaging the attacking ship. The enemy ship seemed to be unshielded, whereas their ship was.

Laser fire lashed out back and forth between the two vessels, and the taulian vessel drifted further from the battle – trying to keep the enemy away from their prize. If they were lucky, they would be undetected and left alone. However, luck never appeared to be on their side.

* * *

Kahl sat there, watching the batteries from the ship's topside unleash their fury against the enemy ship. The heavier turrets were getting knocked out one by one, with the enemy clearly trying to reduce the cruiser's combat efficiency. This enemy ship did not match anything in the raloi or the Council databases, but he did not think it was of taulian design. Not even the taulians could harness that kind of semi-organic design.

The battering failed to cease. The enemy vessel was very powerful, and seemed impervious to damage. It took all the batteries of the battlecruiser to knock out a single weapon on the ship. Unfortunately, sensors indicated there were over two dozen such systems on the enemy vessel. The odds were not in their favor, considering how fast their own systems were dropping.

The two ships danced around eachother, locked in combat, each trying to train as much firepower on the other, while minimizing their opponent's fire. Sadly, the raloi ship was being both outgunned and out manoeuvred.

"Kahl! We cannot hold up the shields much longer!" one of the officers yelled out from his console.

"Draw power away from the engines and life-support systems, see if we can sustain the shields a bit longer." Kahl replied, trying to figure out how to save the ship.

"Putting that much strain on the conduits will cause long-term damage. We don't have that many spare parts out here."

"I have another idea. Turn the ship around, and put all power into the rear shields and laser batteries."

Before the battlecrusier could turn around, a powerful volley of shots surged against the shields. The ship shuddered as alarms went off in the command room. Now, every shot the enemy vessel took was landing against her outer hull. The shields had completely fallen.

"Kahl! We've lost the shields. Engineering is reporting that several of the power conduits blew out, starting several fires."

"Move some of the damage control teams down there!"

Another explosion rocked the ship, and he watched as the forward section of his diamond-shaped cruiser buckle and fracture. Chunks of hull and exterior hull plating began to collide with the enemy vessel, causing the first indications of clear damage. Much to their surprise, the enemy ship did not have barriers. The other officers watched in horror as more explosions spread down the port side.

"Seal off port side and vent all of it to space!" Kahl yelled.

"…Sir, there are almost fifty men still in those sections." The officer was clearly shaken at being asked to sacrifice so many men.

"Do it now, or we lose the ship! Those men are dead now anyway"

"The systems are not responding. Damage control systems are offline!"

Kahl watched the explosions rippled further and further back. The ship was dying, and there was no way he could stop it. The enemy ship continued to unleash a torrent of fire across the topside of the ship, exposing new sections of the vessel to space. The low rumbling sound of the shots impacting the hull echoed down the halls. The battlecruiser's returning fire was dwindling fast, and it was clear they had lost the battle.

"Throw the remaining power we have into the thrusters, and direct all remaining firepower directly in front of our ship. We're going to take these bastards down with us. May it serve our commander well."

* * *

Garrus watched as their battlecruiser took a heavy beating. It was clear she was sustaining heavy damage. Instead of turning away, the scarred battlecruiser turned directly towards the enemy ship. Before his eyes, the two vessels collided, creating a massive fireball and enveloped both vessels. No escape pods appeared to be leaving the ensuing wreckage.

"NO! KAHL!" The Commander cried out in anguish. Most of his crew were still on that ship, and now they were stranded.

* * *

Author's Note: I thank those who have been writing reviews. I like hearing what you guys have to say!

Note #2: I'm working on the next update. For those who noticed the recent update count to the story, that was just fixing a whole swath of grammatical errors...


	6. Chapter 6 - A Conflict of Interest

**Chapter 6: A Conflict of Interest**

Garrus watched as pieces of both vessels drifted apart, and he looked for any signs of movement that might indicate survivors. Nothing out there showed any quick changes in trajectory – nothing to show that there was anything but wreckage drifting about. The bodies of nearly an entire crew floated out there among the debris – debris that acted as a tombstone for the souls lost very far from home.

The turian closed his eyes tightly, wishing things would just go right for a change. Wishing that the galaxy would go easy on them. When he opened them again, he was looking down, his armor beaten, battered, and scarred. Beside him were Shepard and Tali'Zorah, watching the Destiny Ascension battle a massive sovereign-class reaper off in the distance. The debris of two decimated turian dreadnaughts floated aimlessly in space – too far away from the nearby gas planet of Neptune to be drawn in. He could just barely make out the swarms of small dots that were attacking the reaper like mosquitoes – probably alliance fighters, whose carriers were likely destroyed long ago. The point-defence batteries on the reaper were making short work of the attacking pests.

As the reaper closed the distance, the Destiny Ascension fired two accelerator rounds directly into the reaper. The force of these two hit managed to shear off one of its tendrils, causing the enemy vessel to turn slightly. "Leave it to the asari to build a vessel of such grace and firepower" Joker commented as the Normandy passed through yet more debris. The Crucible had destroyed much of Sword fleet – the reapers were now just left with mopping up some of the newer design Council and Alliance vessels.

"Why are they not continuing their retreat?" Shepard asked generally to the bridge, as he often did – always expecting someone to have the answer.

EDI, as per her usual fashion, had her answer almost immediately. "The Destiny Ascension's main drive core is offline. It sustained significant damage earlier in the attack, rendering most of its manoeuvrability impossible."

The reaper, despite the damage, pressed on. A powerful laser on another tendril opened up, slicing through one of the 'wings' of the Destiny Ascension. The effect was devastating – the wing was instantly sheared off. The asari vessel fired yet another two rounds, though this time only one left the vessel, passing through the Reaper and off towards Neptune. The other round misfired, causing a chain reaction of vicious explosions along the port side of the dreadnaught.

"The weapon systems on the Destin Ascension are failing, Shepard. We should leave this system before more reapers make their way towards the relay." EDI stated as she interrupted the display in front of them.

"Get us to the Charon Relay, Joker. We need to regroup with the rest of the fleet at the rendezvous point." Shepard commanded.

"Commander, the Destiny Ascension might defeat the reaper, and if we leave there will be nobody to pick them up before more reapers show up!" Joker was obviously not impressed with being told to leave them to their deaths.

"Joker, the Destiny Ascension only stands a 0.42% chance of defeating the reaper in one-to-one combat at its current combat effectiveness…"

"Never tell me the odds, EDI!" Joker shouted at his co-pilot.

"Damn it Joker, get us the hell out of here!" Shepard had yelled. His patience was obviously running thin. Given the events of the past two days, one could hardly blame him. Unfortunately, it would have to be Shepard who would answer to the galaxy as to why the Crucible was reaper superweapon, and not a prothean one as he lead everyone to believe. _'I wonder how we will beat them now…'_

Leaning against the bulkhead, the battle-worn turian watched wearily as the squad cohesion that held them together for so long began to shake up. As he gazed out the window, the Destiny Ascension managed to fire another round into the reaper. This time, however, a violent detonation ripped through the reaper. The round must have struck the mass-effect core, as the explosion was blowing massive amounts of debris in every direction. Sovereign-class reapers were very hard destroy – only a couple fell during the battle at Earth. Sadly, with others nearby, their victory would be short lived. As they withdrew from the area, the Normandy crew watched as more of the Reaper fleet began to approach the doomed dreadnaught. He felt a wave of dread and doom consume him. _'How had we been deceived into thinking this war was winnable?'_

The high pitched echo of gunfire from the decks below snapped him back to reality, however the flashback left him feeling somewhat uneasy. He felt pressure on his shoulder and turned around.

"Hey, Garrus, you okay? Look, losses like these happen – we'll get back to the Council space and tell them what happened" Jaozak spoke, concerned.

"No, it's not that. I was having another…flashback…to one of the major conflicts in the Reaper War. Never mind that though, we've got a vessel to get moving."

Despite all of his hard work, Garrus had only managed to turn on some of the systems. Unfortunately, the power relays were only accessible from the engineering level. Without them, they were stuck. Garrus made sure to communicate this to Jaozak. "Though, we need to secure those engines if we are to get this vessel out of here. I've managed to bypass the weapon battery lockouts – however we have no power, but if we are to fight – or move – we'll need the engineering level cleared."

"We're running out of manpower for this. I was expecting less resistance on this vessel – they've got a lot of well trained military personnel, and we have no reinforcements. We're losing quite a few men to attrition. However, I know how to free up some men."

Jaozak signalled for one of the soldiers over, and whispered something in his head. The soldier's head feathers fluffed slightly, and then quickly left towards the rear of the bridge. He entered the compartment, gun drawn.

"Commander, what did you tell him to do?" Garrus questioned, rather concerned. Several gunshots echoed down the hall and into the command room, followed by some high-pitched hissing and shouting – and five more soldiers exited the room.

Jaozak turned to him, shrugged his shoulders, and responded slyly "I had to free up some manpower."

He then left Garrus to his work on the bridge, and followed the others to clear out the last bastion of resistance – the engineering level.

* * *

They were losing the ship. Tali had been in enough combat situations to realize this. Unfortunately, she was once again on the receiving end of the punishment. _'The universe only being fair, I suppose. With the Normandy, we sure delivered a lot of it. But what to do about it?_' It was like Haestrom all over again – only now she was not really the one in charge. First, the enemy shows up rather suddenly. Then they begin to overwhelm you. You set up delaying defensive positions, but soon you are left with a few stragglers and a last stand. The only difference was that on a ship, your progress from start to finish is all that quicker.

A small team of raloi infiltrators managed to use the ductwork and service hatches to sneak behind and take the weapons bay – using them as if they had intimate knowledge of the ships inner structure. They had dropped in behind the medical bay and ambushed half the remaining survivors, wounding several and forcing the rest into surrender. Tali had moved the remnants of the squads to the engine bay, to ensure the raloi did not take the entire ship. Commander Alaya was supposedly holding out above deck somewhere, but they had not heard anything from her for hours.

They'd managed to kill a couple adventurous raloi soldiers, but more were certainly on their way. After removing the wounded from combat, she only had three soldiers left to guard the engineering level. Sel was injured, but still holding her weapon up, facing the door.

With the lights out, they were relying entirely on emergency lamps they'd managed to find in some of the cases under the stairs. While they did not provide a great amount of light, it allowed them to light up the area enough to see what they were doing – barely.

As the silence brought an eerie atmosphere to the vessel, heavy pangs rang out across the deck. The Phoenix groaned, her structural members howling in pain as, as if she were being tortured. The crew around her – at least those she could see – looked nervous, quickly glancing back and forth between each other, hoping one had an answer to what was causing the sound.

More metallic pings were scattering across the hull of the vessel – and it dawned on her: The shields were still down, and some sort of debris must be hitting their ship. _'I don't recall their anyone mentioning asteroids out this far. Did they break something off the Phoenix?'_

The groaning sounds grew louder, and then ceased – replaced with a more terrifying sound. The screech of raloi soldiers, mixed with the loud sound of debris striking surfaces somewhere within the ship, meant that the protective hull was breached. Without the ship's effect fields active to mitigate a hull rupture, venting to space became all the more dangerous, and all the more deadly. If the fighting didn't stop, they'd all perish.

As Tali was pondering on how to make her situation any better, she heard a raloi voice yell from an area around the elevator. _'Perhaps they are thinking the same thing'_

"Remaining crew of the Phoenix – the rest of your crew has been killed or captured. Surrender now and I promise you will not be harmed."

Tali looked towards her injured friend. "Maybe we should do as they ask – what if it is true that the rest of the vessel has been captured? It is obvious we are sustaining damage." Sel suggested as she lay against the bulkhead, her breath labored from her injury, "We haven't heard anything from the others for quite some time." She subconsciously held her claws over here wound, in a feeble attempt to ease the pain.

"You might be right. We didn't have a lot of ammunition to begin with, and we have a lot of wounded down here. You included. They could also be lying."

Sel scoffed at the comment. "It's just a flesh wound, I'll be fine." She again clutched at her wound, defeating the argument she was trying to make.

Tali shook her head, and approached the door – which was sparking from battle damage. Delicately trying to avoid electrocuting herself or getting shot, she poked her head around the battle-scorched door frame. Ahead, she could see at least half a dozen well armed and armored raloi preparing to assault their position. Two seemed to be carrying a bench from the crew's quarters as a makeshift shield. The situation was now definitely heavily favoring the attackers.

"Suppose we do, raloi. How can we guarantee you will not kill us if we surrender?" the quarian asked, somewhat anxious about having to actually surrender.

"You cannot. However, Council Law regarding the treatment of prisoners of war prevents us from harming you after you've surrendered. If you refuse to surrender, we will kill you anyway."

_'Charming'_ she thought, _'we don't have a lot of options.'_

"Alright. Let me tell my crew to lay down their arms. How would you like us to proceed?"

"Officers will come out first, leaving their weapons behind and their arms in the air. You will then proceed under guard to a holding area. The rest of the crew will then follow in similar fashion to a separate area. Leave the wounded behind – our medic will tend to them. Understood?"

"Understood."

The entire process did not take long, and the raloi soldiers were true to their word – not a single crew member was hurt in the process. The soldiers came in and made sure everyone as unarmed first. Sel was forced to remain behind, and Tali was led away alone – as the only other officer with them was wounded and was to remain behind. The raloi looked curious and concerned when they saw her, but followed their orders well – better than the taulians she had met after leaving stasis. _'I wonder if they're just more disciplined, or used to dealing with many species.'_ Tali thought to herself. _'Or did they expect me on board?'_ She was led, cuffed, into room with several other officers and some of the squad leaders.

As soon as the guard stepped back out into the hallway, a voice from the corner shouted at her. "Tali, over here!"

She turned to look at her Commander, who was in the corner, looking somewhat defeated.

"Commander, what a relief it is to see you alive. I must say this is the first time I've been locked up on a friendly vessel before." The quarian said with a light-hearted chuckle, attempting to ease the mood somewhat.

"You think that is bad? What do you think the taulian government is going to do to me when they find out the raloi have their most advanced ship under their control? I'd probably be better of dying onboard this vessel." Her commander mused, quite grimly.

Tali pondered on this thought. On one hand, the raloi could torture them all and dump the bodies in space- nobody would ever find them. If they made it back to taulian space without a ship, they'd experience a similar fate. Given the mood of the other officers, many already knew their options were limited. As she thought about her options, the room's doors opened and several raloi guards entered.

"You – and that thing – come here." The raloi soldier said as he approached the two females in the corner. "You're going to both see the commander."

Tali'Zorah did not like being called that thing – that was what the galaxy referred to the quarians before the Reaper War. She did not become an admiral, command squads, and fight alongside Shepard just to be demeaned in such a fashion. She would remind this soldier that quarians were not a 'thing' – and perfectly capable of inflicting harm.

The raloi soldier grabbed Alaya's cuffed hands, and reached for Tali's – only to notice the cuffs were off and on the ground. Before he had a chance to connect the two dots, he heard a dull crunch at the quarian's fist drove into his chest plating. Despite the light armor, the force knocked the breath out of him, sending him back into the bulkhead. Two more soldiers quickly assisted the downed raloi and restrained the quarian.

As he caught his breath, he got back up and leveled himself to the quarian's eyes and glared. "You're going to regret that."

"You bosh'tet. I've seen taulian children who looked tougher than you." Tali said back, seething with spite.

"After the commander is done with you, me and you are going to have some nice one-on-one time. Alone." the soldier sneered and he lead the two prisoners to the elevator.

* * *

Commander Alaya and Tali'Zorah were brought up to the command deck of the Phoenix, shackled and restrained. While the Raloi invaders had managed to capture the vessel, they could not pilot nor operate it without their help – the raloi specialist on taulian technology had been lost when their battlecruiser was attacked.

"Commander, I've brought up the prisoners as you requested" the officer said, directing the two females towards his superior. "What shall I do with the rest?"

"Isolate only those essential to the ship's operation – engineers and operators only. Might as well keep the cook, too. Send the rest out the airlock. We don't have the manpower to keep an eye on that many enemy soldiers. We would have an uprising before we even made it to the Citadel." Commander Jaozak ordered, at the same time condemning nearly thirty soldiers to their death.

"You damn raloi are all the same. Cold and ruthless. You're going to kill nearly three quarters of my crew!" Commander Alaya screamed at Jaozak.

"If you were in my boots, would you do anything different?"

Garrus, who had been listening in on the conversation, now sat up from the console and turned to talk to his commander. "Hopefully they've still got a pilot, because I don't have the damndest idea on how to fly this vessel. The controls are all foreign to me."

It was now that he noticed the two prisoners brought up from the cargo bay. This was the first time Garrus had seen a taulian up so close. Previously, he'd only observed them at a distance. The taulian on the left was rather short, with a max height of around five feet. Her posture was upright, but their species still retained a tail – likely making them very balanced and agile in combat. Her face was a darker green and relatively flat - apart from the nose - and comprised of a slight scaly pattern, forming two bony crests extending off the back. The latter reminded him of the asari, though these two crests were much more defined.

Given the decoration of the uniform, the taulian on the left was obviously a commander officer. However, it was the other that drew the most attention. The taulian on the right was wearing the unmistakable suit of a quarian, with the unique colors of his long-deceased friend from the Normandy.

Garrus felt a pang of sadness, and then his temper flared – _'after this bastardization of the Normandy, how dare they mimic the armor of the deceased as well!'_. He aggressively stepped towards the Taulian on the right. "Where did you get this suit?"

There was a light moment of silence as the two aliens stood there. "Garrus Vakarian? Is that really you?" Tali'Zorah exclaimed, finally mustering the words to express her joy.

"Wait, what? Tali?" replied Garrus, his hostile demeanor quickly shifting to cautious joy.

Garrus hugged Tali, much to the dismay of his commander and fellow officers. "You have no idea how nice it is to see you alive! How many of the others made it?" He broke the embrace, and look optimistically at his old friend.

Tali's head and posture dropped down in response to the question – her body language changing instantly. "You're the only one I've seen Garrus. I have not hear from any others."

"What about Shepard?"

Tali'Zorah started to reply, but was cut off by Commander Jaozak. "Garrus, is this alien also from your cycle? If so, why is she working for the enemy?"

"Yes, she served with me and the rest of the crew on the Normandy. As for why she is working with the taulians, you'd have to ask her." Garrus said, ending the sentence in a rather judgemental tone.

Instead, Commander Alaya spoke up. "The enemy? It is the raloi that are actively working against the unity of the galaxy. If these reapers are a true threat, then why does the Council constantly deny funding to us? Why do they actively interfere in our activities?"

"What do you think we were doing out here? Just on a joy ride in one of the most dangerous places in the galaxy?" Jaozak shouted at Alaya.

Before Alaya could respond to that question, he continued. "We can discuss this at another point in time. We need to get this ship to Council space before those aliens show up again."

"What aliens? Why don't you get on your own vessel and return us control of our ship."

Jaozak realized that they would not have seen what happened, having been stuck on the inner-most compartments of the frigate. "Take a look out the window, and see what remains of our battlecruiser."

The ruins of the two vessels created an extensive debris field. Large chunks of hull and plating continued to drift aimlessly around the disabled ship.

"We didn't pick up any other ships on our sensors. What species attacked you?" Alaya was now showing actual concern, as she knew the amount of firepower it would take to destroy a raloi battlecruiser.

"We don't know. Any information our ship picked up on the vessel was lost when the battlecruiser was destroyed. All I know is another advanced species is out there – undiscovered – and has technology greater than some of the best of the Council races. All I was able to get from Kahl before he died was that it was made of semi-organic semi-synthetic materials."

"Well, in the interest of both our crews, we will assist in reaching Council space. However, none of my crew are to be 'airlocked', as you so elegantly put it – otherwise you'll spend the rest of your voyage trying to force the rest of us to work at gunpoint."

"Fine. However, your crew will be restricted to tighter rations and confined to various quarters on the vessel – under guard. Also, your officers and soldiers are not permitted to be in the same room. If I find out any intermingling is going on, I will not hesitate to space them."

* * *

It took several hours, but the combined crews were able to bring the ship's systems back online. Some of the repair work was rather unprofessional, and the ship would need to undergo many repairs at the shipyards. The ship was soon on its way to the relay. Their success was to be short-lived. As they neared the relay, two dozen vessels began to appear around it – and they were very similar in appearance to the one that destroyed the raloi battlecruiser. The ships were holding position around the relay, and not advancing towards them.

Commander Jaozak turned to Alaya and Tali "I'm up for suggestions. Any ideas how we break through to the relay?"

Alaya responded, with a heavy layer of sarcasm. "Yeah, let me just enable our stealth systems. Oh, I'm sorry – some idiot fried those earlier"

"Hold here. They do not appear to be attacking this time – they appear to be defending the relay instead." Tali recommended, ignoring the obvious tension between the two crews.

One of the raloi behind them was also looking at the impressive fleet ahead of them. "If these are vessels of the reapers, why would they not destroy us? Why toy with us?"

"Maybe they wish to capture us." Alaya stated, no longer in a sarcastic tone.

"Or indoctrinate us…." Tali added, nervously.

"Wouldn't indoctrination be readily apparent, like brainwashing? The Council would easily recognize it." The raloi commander was obviously worried about the possibility.

"No – indoctrination was – sorry, is – very subtle. In hindsight, I've been wondering if members of the Alliance during our cycle were indoctrinated. It is just difficult to tell. The reapers have had millions of years to perfect it – it's basically an art to them."

"Did you not develop any systems to detect it?" the raloi crew member questioned.

"No – the protheans before us managed to develop a technology to detect indoctrination to a degree – but we did not have the time or skills to do the same."

As the two discussed the effects of indoctrination, one of the vessels broke the defence formation, and approached the Phoenix. It moved at an alarming pace, quickly closing the distance between the Phoenix and the main fleet.

"Garrus, go back to the gun stations and get the taulians to plot some firing solutions on that ship, but do not train the guns on them yet. And absolutely do not open fire unless I tell you to."

"Yes commander." Garrus followed the command to the letter, and went to coordinate with the taulian crew. _'Stay safe, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy'_

* * *

Author's Note: I do apologize for the long gap between these updates. I work an insane amount of hours, and it is the summer after all….


End file.
